The key to
Steve Winwood's solo career is inconsistency. After he dashed the extravagant expectations built up by his group years with the disappointing debut album Steve Winwood, he came back with the stunning
Arc Of A Diver. Then he disappointed again with
Talking Back To The Night, only to come back strong again with
Back In The High Life. With that track record,
Roll With It should have been another flop, but it turned out to be a good followup. It was
Refugees Of The Heart that was
Winwood's next letdown. The distinction between a great
Winwood album and one that's only okay is dangerously small -- it has more to do with performance than composition -- and on
Refugees Of The Heart, as on
Talking Back To The Night,
Winwood was unable to invest
Will Jennings' pedestrian lyrics with the soulful feeling of which he's capable. The album's standout is a collaboration with ex-Traffic partner
Jim Capaldi on "One And Only Man," which topped Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart, hit #9 on its Adult Contemporary chart, and peaked at #18 on the Hot 100. Perhaps noting this exception,
Winwood next teamed with
Capaldi in a 1994 reunion of
Traffic.
–
William Ruhlmann, Rovi